Chapter 11
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How to Survive as the Villain's Younger Sister
Episode 11
Maran shouted at the maids.
The maids scrambled to their feet and bowed deeply.
Alexis regarded them with an expressionless gaze before speaking.
"Why were you lying on the ground?"
"Pardon?"
Alexis's blue eyes turned toward me.
"What happened with Cyrilia?"
The maids exchanged glances in an instant.
If it came to light that they'd mistreated me under Dreiny's orders, it would be the end for them.
What they did to silence me was—
Thump!
"Your Grace, please help us!"
Della suddenly dropped to her knees and cried out.
Alexis asked coldly.
"Help you?"
"We tried to endure it, but we simply cannot bear it any longer."
"Bear what, exactly."
"The way Miss Cyrilia treats us."
Della spoke through sobs.
'Their acting is incredible!'
The other maids soon began their appeals as well.
"We thought it was merely the thoughtlessness of a young lady and didn't dare speak of it, but we can endure no longer."
"Just moments ago, the young lady knocked Della down and ordered us to strike her across the face."
"At every meal, she serves us filth and...."
Wow! Aren't these people all actors?
I stood speechless, utterly bewildered.
Since they couldn't silence my mouth, they were destroying the credibility of my words instead.
Now, no matter what I said, it would sound like the excuses of a cruel mistress abusing pitiful servants.
Alexis gazed down at the maids, now dissolved in tears, without a word.
"Your Grace! You must punish the young lady severely. These employees are your people, after all—how dare she!"
Maran spoke.
His tone suggested he'd been waiting for the perfect moment to catch me in a trap.
Dain, however, thought differently.
"Before that, we must verify whether the maids' claims are truthful."
"Didn't you see the maids lying on the ground in front of the young lady? That should be sufficient! Or perhaps you have something to say for yourself, Miss?"
Maran turned to me with open hostility.
My chest tightened.
'Maran truly is detestable.'
In the original story, Maran despised Cyrilia.
No—it wasn't mere dislike. It was outright abhorrence.
He claimed it was because my personality was disagreeable.
'But that wasn't his true reason. He looked down on Julia because she came from a fallen noble house.'
Maran came from a lineage that had served as Knight Order commander of the Parkision Ducal House for generations.
He took immense pride in his family's status.
His flaw was that he ranked people according to their social standing.
'That's why he showed no mercy when he killed Cyrilia.'
I recalled he had employed truly brutal methods.
The memory made my body tremble involuntarily.
Seeing my reaction, one of Alexis's eyebrows arched upward.
"Speak."
She issued me a command.
"Is what the maids are saying true?"
Alexis's blue eyes were cold, as if interrogating a criminal.
I met her winter-frost gaze directly and lifted the hem of my skirt.
Small, round knees stained with blood came into view.
"No! There's blood—!"
"Miss, are you alright?"
Dain and Maran gasped in alarm.
Dain rushed toward me in a single bound.
I shook my head weakly.
"No. It hurts...."
"How did you get injured?"
I pressed my lips firmly shut and gazed at Della and the maids with tearful eyes.
They had all gone pale.
Only Della bit her lip and shook her head slightly.
It was a signal to keep quiet.
"Miss?"
"They said I'd be punished if I told...."
"Punished? Who would punish you?"
Alexis asked abruptly.
Her voice was pitched a tone higher than usual.
I opened my eyes wide in genuine surprise.
Tears that had been gathering in my large eyes began to spill down my cheeks.
And with that, I suddenly burst into tears.
"Wahhhhh...!"
In that moment, Della rushed toward me frantically.
She even pushed aside the favored Dain and embraced me.
"Miss, I'm so sorry I couldn't catch you when you fell from the tree. It's all my fault. Please, punish me as you always do."
"What on earth...?"
Dain, pushed back, furrowed his brow in bewilderment.
Della spoke without a shred of shame.
"Young Miss wished to climb the tree, so I stopped her for safety. But she insisted on going up anyway and fell."
As Della said this, she patted my back.
It was truly magnificent acting.
"Young Miss, please stop crying and allow me to be punished..."
"Waaah, I-I was wrong! Don't hit me!"
I curled my body with a frightened expression, dodging Della's touch.
"Young Miss!"
The moment Della reached out to embrace me again.
Snap.
"Remove your hand."
Alexis seized Della's wrist.
"Ah, ow! Y-Your Grace!"
Della screamed in pain—her grip was that fierce.
Yet Alexis didn't bat an eye, simply flinging her arm away.
Della tumbled backward onto the ground.
"D-Della!"
The servants, flustered and uncertain, helped the fallen Della to her feet.
Alexis regarded them coldly before speaking.
"Cyrilia, tell me. What happened?"
"S-sob, ugh, I-I... nothing..."
I whimpered, forcibly suppressing the tears threatening to burst forth.
Alexis let out a scoff of disbelief.
"Your young mistress was injured badly enough to bleed, yet the servants neither noticed nor tended to her."
"..."
"You trembled in fear, thinking a mere maid's touch was a beating, and yet you claim nothing happened?"
"...S-sob, that's..."
"If you don't speak truthfully, I'll inflict a punishment far more terrifying than what those maids did to you."
Alexis warned with the chill of frost in her voice.
I, who had been trembling and whimpering, froze solid as ice.
Even though this situation was of my own design.
I was genuinely, truly terrified.
Was this the face the original Alexis wore when slaying demons on the battlefield?
'If I don't speak honestly now... will I die here too...?!'
I don't want to die!
My mouth opened of its own accord, driven by survival instinct.
"Th-the maids were tormenting me and scolding me! They said if I didn't obey, th-they'd tell my uncle and have me punished...!"
It was what I'd intended to say anyway, but thanks to Alexis's intimidating presence, my voice came out even more aggrieved.
"And what else?"
"Today I combed my hair alone, dressed myself, got dressed by myself...."
"How did you hurt your knee?"
"B-because Dain didn't come, the maids said they needed to leave quickly, and they grabbed me so roughly that... I fell."
The middle part was somewhat omitted, but in any case, it was true that I fell because of the maids.
"S-so I was so angry that I, I said I'm the mistress so I'd punish you all, but then they told my uncle again and said they'd discipline me...waaah!"
The more I spoke, the more pitiful I felt, and I burst into tears again.
Even as my younger sister spoke so miserably, Alexis's expression didn't change at all.
Was it because of that reaction?
Della, who had regained her confidence, cried out.
"T-that's not true! Ask the other employees! They'll testify that the youngest lady abused us!"
By other employees, she meant the servants who had received money from Dreiny.
It was then that Alexis, standing with her arms crossed and expressionless, opened her mouth.
"You said they wanted to leave quickly because Dain didn't come?"
I, still crying, nodded.
"Why?"
"W-well, because Della and the maids like Dain...."
At those words, Della and the maids' faces turned bright red.
"What did you say?"
Dain also repeated it with an expression of disbelief.
"What nonsense... A maid of the Parkision Dukedom would be a first-class bride candidate among commoners, so why would they.... Your Grace, don't believe her. It's a lie."
Maran muttered as if telling her not to lie.
He was a typical soldier.
He had no interest in anything beyond his assigned duties.
Because of that, he was unaware of the rumors among the maids.
'It seems like they're deliberately belittling Dain out of jealousy.'
That was when it happened.
"Ah, ahahaha...!"
Suddenly, Alexis burst out laughing.
Alexis rarely laughed.
So everyone in the room froze as if they'd seen a ghost.
I was no exception.
'Besides, this sounds like mockery.'
So Alexis doesn't believe me either.
'Then w-what do I do.'
My plan to trap the maids timed perfectly with Alexis's arrival crumbles to dust.
Then I'll be scolded by Alexis, scolded by the maids, and scolded by Dreiny.
'I'm completely ruined....'
Just as despair was about to cloud my vision.
"My ears weren't playing tricks on me."
Alexis spoke, her voice still tinged with mockery.
"I sent Dain and Maran away to clear my thoughts, and while I was taking a solitary walk, I heard something peculiar."
Brought to you by Valir Scans! To support our team and enjoy the latest releases, please read directly on our official site: valirscans.org